Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2012 Oct;23(5):791-7. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2012.01.006. Epub 2012 Feb 4.
A major goal of biological research is to provide a mechanistic understanding of diverse biological processes. To this end, synthetic biology offers a powerful approach, whereby biological questions can be addressed in a well-defined framework. By constructing simple gene circuits, such studies have generated new insights into the design principles of gene regulatory networks. Recently, this strategy has been applied to analyze ecological and evolutionary questions, where population-level interactions are critical. Here, we highlight recent development of such systems and discuss how they were used to address problems in ecology and evolutionary biology. As illustrated by these examples, synthetic ecosystems provide a unique platform to study ecological and evolutionary phenomena that are challenging to study in their natural contexts.
生物学研究的一个主要目标是提供对各种生物学过程的机制理解。为此，合成生物学提供了一种强大的方法，可以在一个明确定义的框架内解决生物学问题。通过构建简单的基因电路，这些研究为基因调控网络的设计原则提供了新的见解。最近，这种策略已被应用于分析种群水平相互作用至关重要的生态和进化问题。在这里，我们重点介绍了这种系统的最新发展，并讨论了它们如何用于解决生态学和进化生物学中的问题。正如这些例子所说明的，合成生态系统为研究在自然环境中难以研究的生态和进化现象提供了一个独特的平台。
